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GreenBeat 2009: Intro and Opening Keynote

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GreenBeat 2009: The Conference on the Smart Grid

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Is the US Missing Out on Green Energy Profits?

03 min 07 sec

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Venture capitalist John Doerr argues that environmental regulation is not a "job killer" but actually a huge economic opportunity.

Comparing the US to Denmark, Doerr argues that America desperately needs to a make a segue into green industry.
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46 min 29 sec

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Previous FORAtv comments:

scrubsmcgee

Posted: 11.29.09, 05:25 AM

You are arguing then that carbon that humans generate is not part of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (a greenhouse gas) and it should not be accounted for because any government imposed price on carbon would be "artificially" raising the cost. But... Carbon should be taxed at a set price or a cap and trade program should be in effect to help realize the actual costs that carbon creates. Burning fossil fuels releases some materials we don't want just like nuclear reactors create waste which we don't want. We regulate how spent nuclear fuel is dealt with we should be doing the same with oil. Copenhagen will hopefully generate some action on the part of the world governments. One worry is that if we fail to act fast enough we may see nature take over and surpass any efforts we have of removing carbon from the atmosphere through various and some large scale positive feedbacks. (Ex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_methane_release )

msh317

Posted: 11.25.09, 07:53 AM

Interesting perspective and a good way to view investment in a stronger economic base – I applaud Mr Doerr’s approach when reminding us that there are consequences to our failure to act – not much different than putting off maintenance and repair in order to have a short term profit – our EcoSystem is quite indifferent to our personal goals of liquidity and profit. I am reminded of a wall street presentation made about a year prior to the economic collapse where a clear forecast of the events of today were laid out along with recommendations on how to profit from it. One JP Morgan executive only said “I Hope you are wrong”. Eurocities this year is in Stockholm and has considerable corporate interest – I truly “Hope” that our country doesn’t take the path we did in Broadband – allowing our country to slide into the noise while other smaller countries continue to outperform us in speed, cost, capacity, and economics. Mark

wsoutherland

Posted: 11.24.09, 09:56 AM

Selling this as a way to get off oil is a good thing. Selling this as a way to make our power more modern and robust is a good thing. Trying to make us feel guilty for destroying the planet is a bad thing. I won't be spoken to that way. John Doerr only wasted a minute or two while trying to explain his motivation is more than just money, but don't think that the veiled attempt at making us feel guilty wasn't noticed. Stop trying to scare us and make us feel guilty. As soon as we hear threats about flooding Manhattan we, rightfully, get turned off. Just saying this may create jobs isn't enough either. We can hire people to dig holes and fill them back up again if we want. Such a job would be a pointless waste of time, money and human effort. Just like everything in life, the benefits must out way the cost and you are just trying to raise the cost artificially with government imposed carbon caps.